Burdened with Misguided Purpose
by Requiescat in Pace il Ti Amor
Summary: Thor is tasked with punishing his unruly brother. He refuses to be helped. However, when his punishment tactics take an unexpected-and pleasant-turn, how will Loki react? Can Thor beat some sense into his misguided brother? Rated M for later chapters and violence.
1. Returning Home

"I wish to see my son," the elderly King demanded of the guards before him. The stern faces never changed, but the older of the two-a haggard looking man with a long scar crossing from just below his left eye to the tip of his chin-stood a little straighter.

"We are under strict orders from the King not to let anyone through these doors until he has had a chance to see the prisoner for himself," the man said in a sturdy voice.

"Is that so?" the patriarch asked with a raised, white brow.

"Indeed, my Lord." Again, no change in expression-his voice didn't change from its monotone bass either.

"My son has chosen loyal guards for his brother...but it pains me to know that such precautions must be taken to detain my youngest." The white-haired man shook his head slowly, a saddened expression coming over his face. "Has Thor restricted even his father from seeing the...prisoner?"

"Aye, Allfather."

Odin closed his eye and sighed, clasping his hands behind his back. "That I feared. Very well. Please send someone to alert me when the King is through with my son. I will come immediately."

"Of course, Allfather," the oldest guard said. In unison, the two raised their hands to touch their breastplates, nodding their helmeted heads to Odin as he turned away.

"Such discourse in my Kingdom, and I have not been the Elder King for more than a moon," Odin muttered, shaking his head slowly once more as he made his way back to his chambers. The knowledge of Loki's detainment sat heavily on his heart, and it weighted his feet so that he shuffled along slowly. How he longed for Loki to understand...Perhaps Thor could shed some light on Loki's dim perception?

The guards stepped aside dutifully and bowed deeply as the golden-haired King strode down the long hallway, his red cape billowing out behind him. His face was set in a stern, unyielding expression.

The door leading to the prison cells opened of their own accord, and Thor stepped into the cold room, shuddering slightly at the temperature change. Several torches lit as he strode down the aisle between the two rows of cells on either side of the room. When he reached the end of the hall, he turned to the right and gazed down at the prisoner crouched there at the back of the cell.

"Brother," Thor said in a voice that matched his expression.

Loki remained silent, glowering up at the King. He had no option to do more than that, really.

The muzzle Thor had placed on him on Midgard had remained in place except for when he was served his meals. As a result, he sat, and he glowered.

"You have the power to end this," Thor said. "You have but to swear fealty to me before Asgard, and all can return to how it was."

The raven-haired male rolled his eyes and sat back against the far wall of the cell. This conversation had become perfunctory. All Loki had to do to dissuade Thor from reasoning with him further was to not react.

However, Thor apparently wanted to take this in a different direction for a change. "Jane has been asking about you." Heimdal and many other Asgardians had worked tirelessly to return the Bifrost to working order, and Thor had recently been able to finally visit Jane.

Loki's eyes widened slightly, and his gaze hardened his eyes to chips of ice as he looked up at Thor. The muzzle faded away at Thor's behest, and Loki's sneer of contempt was visible.

"Do you think I care? Did you hope to coax a rise from me by invoking your precious Midgardian?" he spat. "I do not care about your mortals. They are weak. Pitiful."

Thor raised a golden brow at that. "I seem to remember five mortals besting you in battle. I also recall you once trying to rule Midgard; did you hope to wield an army of pitiful weaklings?"

Loki's glare became less effective as indignation and anger slipped into it. "I would have been a great King! Greater than you ever will be."

Thor sighed in frustration and shook his head. "Loki, you really must stop this."  
"I haven't done anything," Loki sniffed. "I can't even use a chamber pot on my own. You've made sure of that."

Thor's blue eyes hardened, and he clenched his jaw. After a moment, he continued. "You must stop with these delusions. You were meant to be a King, but that opportunity has passed. The Frost Giants will never accept you as their king, and I am King of Asgard."

"Of that I am perfectly aware," Loki sighed, looking away from his brother.

"Then why do you persist? Why must you defy me? Do you find pleasure in being kept like a dog? Chained and muzzled?" Thor's voice had taken on an almost desperate tone, and he had clenched his hands into fists with the intensity of his emotions.

Loki eyed his brother for a moment, then smirked. He leaned forward so he balanced on the balls of his bare feet and was less than a foot away from Thor with only the cell bars separating them. His shackles clinked metallically as he did so, and he ignored them. "Because it is all I have left," the Prince hissed. He wheezed a laugh, shaking his head slightly. "You have beaten me, but I am not broken. Don't you see? You have taken everything from me, but nothing at all."

"I don't under—"

"Of course you don't, you oaf," Loki interrupted, which brought a spark of annoyance to Thor's eyes. "You are all about brute strength, and fighting, and your precious hammer. You never cared for the details." He chewed his lip for a moment, contemplating leaving Thor with that bit of thought to mull over. However, he decided it would be more rewarding to see Thor's immediate reaction. "My dignity."

"What?" Thor asked, grimacing.

Loki rolled his eyes in exasperation. "How thick can you get?' he muttered. Then he sighed and clarified in a bored tone of voice, "I will not kneel before you, oh Great Thor, because I still have my dignity. And until the day I lose that, you will not quell my reluctant spirit."

Thor was silent for a long moment as he thought that over. Then, as if it took a great amount of effort, he rose and turned away from the cell.

"I take that as an invitation, then," Thor said in a dignified voice. He turned his head and nodded gravely. Two guards in full outfit walked down the hall, leaned their staffs against the dividing wall of the cells and opened Loki's cell door.

"What are you doing?" Loki asked, frowning as the guards filed into the cell.

"What is necessary," Thor said with a sigh. "Strip him. If he tries to escape, do whatever it takes to recover him."

The guards gave no notion of acknowledgement, but they continued with their work. They reached forward and unlocked Loki's shackles from his wrists as well as his ankles. As a single unit, the pair yanked Loki forward and tore his robes from him, tossing the material aside.

"Unhand me!" Loki snarled, trying to push at the guards, but to no avail. "Stop! Stop this instant!" His eyes blazed with rage, and he began to gather a spell together that would incinerate the men where they stood, but in a fraction of a blink of an eye, the younger of the two had retrieved his staff and held its point-which also served as a spearhead-to Loki's pale throat.

The man did not speak-he didn't need to. The message was perfectly clear to Loki: Use magic, and he would learn just how painful it was to die by an Asgardian's hand.

Once Loki released the energies he had been gathering, the men returned to work, using small daggers to rip at the thicker parts of his clothing. When they finished, Loki crouched naked on the floor of the cell, his wrists and ankles once again bound.

"Is this your master plan?" he taunted. "To embarrass me in front of your guards?" He laughed defiantly at Thor, who had remained silent during the whole procession.

"Not at all," Thor said. "But while you choose to be treated like a dog, I believe it is fitting to play the part to its fullest."

Loki's eyes flashed with indignation, but he said nothing. He seethed silently as Thor and the guards withdrew from the cell, locking it.

"Is this the only key?" Thor asked the senior of the guards.

"Aye, your Highness."

"Good. No one but I will open this door for any reason. Understood?"

The two guards saluted Thor by bracing their arms across their breastplates and bowing their heads obediently.

"Come. Your relief has arrived. Go, eat and rest." Thor lead the two guards from the room, and the door to the dungeon-like room swung shut. The torches burned themselves out before long, leaving Loki in darkness and silence.

"Well, isn't this just lovely?" he muttered to himself.

"Wake up." Once again, Loki blinked his eyes open to face the scarred guard. He had placed a tray on the floor with a bit of food on a plate. With a shove, the tray slid under the bars of the cell and came to a halt before Loki.

"This is different from the gruel you people have been feeding me," Loki mused as he picked the plate up. There was a slab of meat from some unfortunate creature as well as a vegetable, and even a slice of honey cake. "How thoughtful of my brother."

"Not Thor," the guard corrected.

"Oh? Then whom have I to thank?" Loki took a bite of the meat and savored the flavor. He had become quite tired of the tasteless, colorless slop he had been forced to eat.

"The Allfather bade us give you this meal. I would have gladly served you the regular prison food, but Odin took pity on you." The guard watched Loki for a moment, then grimaced. "You can't accept such a small kindness as your father giving you decent food?"

Loki had set the plate back on the tray and pushed the food away contemptuously. "I do not want anything that bastard has to offer," he sneered.

Anger flashed in the guards' eyes, and a low growl passed his scarred lips. "You might want to reassess that assumption of the Allfather. His father before him was a great man who took pride in his son. I believe the word bastard more adeptly describes _you_. After all, you grew up as a bastard of Laufey—"

"Laufey was _not_ my father," Loki snarled. His skin took on a grayish tint as his anger affected his body, and he pulled against the chains that shackled him to the wall. "I have no father. Not Odin, and not Laufey. I would rather call myself the offspring of Hel herself before I called either of them Father."

"Your father has done nothing but love you since the day he found you," the guard said, shaking his head. "And this is how you repay him." He reached under the bars and took the tray back, standing and leaving Loki alone once more.

_...since the day he found you..._

"Damn it, Loki, pull yourself together!" Loki snarled, squeezing his eyes shut and curling in around himself. He hadn't been given any more clothing, and on top of being cold, he was hungry. "It shouldn't bother you so much..."

But it did. It bothered him more than he wanted to admit. His eyes stung with the beginnings of tears, and he bit his lip to staunch them. No one wanted him...not Laufey, not Odin...no one appreciated him. Twice he had been abandoned. Granted, the second was technically his own fault...he had, after all, vanished into a black hole. But no one had gone looking for him...no one even bothered searching. Not until he had gone after Midgard. And even then, the Avengers had only wanted to find him so they could detain him, and send him back to Asgard.

"Look at you," he spat. "Cowering in a cell, feeling sorry for yourself. You are a _god_! You are better than this."

"And you are mad as a buck in rut."

Loki jumped in surprise, and then grimaced, baring his teeth at the white-haired man standing just outside his prison cell. "What did you say?"

"You're mad. Talking to yourself like that, people will start to think you have lost your sense."

The sneer that—as of late—seemed to be a constant presence on Loki's lips returned, and he sat up as straight as he could. "As if they don't already," he said. "Why are you here, Odin? What more could you _possibly_ do to me?"

Odin seemed to consider that for a moment, and then he said, "Well, I have already given you a home, a family who loves you, a kingdom who would gladly love you, and a brother who literally went to the ends of existence itself to find you and bring you home." He shrugged stiffly and sat upon a chair that one of the guards brought in. "I do not know what else I can give you."

Loki's eyes settled on the Allfather's withered form, and his sneer vanished. "I only ever wanted to be Thor's equal," he said numbly. "But you always loved him more than I..."

"No, Loki," Odin sighed. He leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. "It is not that I loved Thor more than you. I love you both dearly—you are my sons; how could I not? No, the truth of the matter is that I knew you would both aspire to greatness. And I wanted you both to go about your own destinies as you would. Nothing would stop my ambitious boys—especially not the fact that one of them was different from the other."

"Your words are nonsense," Loki said. "I do not understand."

Odin shook his head slowly. He looked tired, and old. Loki had never considered Odin frail, but if one word were to describe the Allfather's presence at that very moment, that would be the one. "I did not tell you of your true heritage because I did not want you to believe you were any less than your brother. Thor is King only because his ambitions taught him lessons that yours did not. If I had told you what you were when you were a boy, you would have grown up doubting yourself. You would have compared yourself to your peers and family, just as you are now. That is self-destructive behavior, my boy. And it is dangerous."

Loki closed his eyes and turned his face away from Odin. "You think I don't know that?" he asked darkly. "I know your reasoning. You spout it like scripture. What I _don't_ understand is...is..."

"What Loki, what is it that you don't understand?"

The raven-haired prisoner shook his head and tightened his hands into fists. "Everything!" he exclaimed. "The words...I understand them, but it just doesn't make sense."

Odin was silent for a long moment, and when he spoke, his voice was gentle. "Son, you are confused...and so very lost. I hope that in time, you will find yourself again. I hope that all will be as it once was...in time."

The Allfather stood slowly, the groaning of his knees becoming audible in the silence, and he walked away from the cell in a very dignified manner. A guard came to retrieve the chair, and then—once again—Loki was left to the silence of his thoughts.


	2. And So It Begins

The first thing he noticed was the cold. His body was numb with it, and what hadn't yet gone numb tingled with agonizing pins and needles. The raven-haired man opened eyes that were crusted closed with might have been tears, but it was highly likely that ice had formed on his lashes, sealing his eyelids together. He tried to flex his fingers, but he couldn't feel them. The ache in his shoulders was still present, though. Someone had strung him up by his wrists, leaving him to hang suspended over...well, it could have been a gaping hole in the ground for all he knew—even when he opened his eyes, there was no light in the room.

"H-h-h..." Loki closed his eyes again and waited for a long moment as his body shivered. When he thought he wouldn't stutter like an imbecile, he called, "Hello?"

His voice rang hollowly in the deafening silence of the room, and when the echo returned to his ears, it brought another sound—the sound of dripping water. Yes, he could feel it now. Water slid down his naked body in a steady, cascading stream. It started at his hands, and then ran down his arms, shoulders, and down his back to his legs where it dripped onto the ground from his toes. The water must have been bitterly cold, but he could no longer differentiate temperature. He could hardly feel the wetness along his body.

"Is...is this how you int-tend to break me, Thor?" he wheezed, opening his eyes to glare around the darkness. "Th-this is pitiful." He raised his head from where it hung and turned his face up toward the stream of water. As it splashed onto his face, he gasped, and then he laughed. The sound echoed eerily in the dark chamber, and he couldn't stop. The laugh became a cackle, and he closed his eyes to focus on the amusement. As his cackle bubbled down to nothing, his skin became steadily darker until it became a frosty blue. The water that cascaded down on him froze as it touched his skin, but it felt warm comparatively.

_CRACK!_ Loki found himself falling suddenly. It wasn't a terribly long way to go before he hit the floor, but it was far enough to make him cry out as his heart leapt into his chest. Torches flared into existence, blinding Loki for a moment. When his eyes adjusted, he found himself in a circular room made entirely out of dark grey stone. It was one continuous slab, as if some giant snake had burrowed down into the earth and left its tunnel behind. Moss covered the walls, along with a slime that gleamed in the torchlight.

"What is this place?" Loki breathed. Even with the torchlight, the darkness near the ceiling was impenetrable.

"It is a place that no one outside the walls of Odin's Palace knows of," a deep voice growled.

Loki turned to take in the rest of the room. Directly behind him was a small wooden door, which was set into the stone. It looked ancient, and wet—much like the rest of the place. Just in front of the door, holding a torch with one hand, and the other rested on the hilt of his sword stood the dark-skinned guard named Heimdall. His amber, wolf-like eyes rested on Loki's still form, and they narrowed slightly.

"I don't suppose you should divulge such secretive information with a prisoner?" Loki said as he pulled himself out of the stream of water. He looked down at his hands—which had returned to their original color—and grimaced. The link connecting the shackles to the chain dangling under the water had snapped completely off. The chill from his skin must have made the metal brittle, and then it broke under his weight.

"It is called the Labyrinth of Helheim," Heimdall said, his deep voice echoing in the chamber. "The Allfather's father's father discovered it. This place is deep beneath the surface, and cannot be reached by anyone who does not know each and every one of these tunnels."

"When did you find them?" Loki asked, reaching behind his shoulders to break away some of the ice. He winced and held a shard up to the torchlight. It was smeared with blood. Wonderful.

"I didn't," Heimdall said, also examining the ice. He remained silent for a while, watching the confusion enter Loki's eyes. "I would let that melt off on its own. You'll damage important nerves if you try to take it off yourself."

Loki tossed the ice aside contemptuously, then looked up at Heimdall. "I thought you could see all. That's why you were posted as the Keeper of the Bifrost. You could see into other dimensions entirely. Are you telling me that a system of tunnels and caves eluded your keen gaze?"

Heimdall's eyes flashed, and he frowned. "There is something around this place that makes it...difficult to detect. I would accuse someone of spinning a web of magic around it to keep it secret from me, but you are the only one who could perform a spell of that magnitude. The other sorcerers wouldn't even attempt it."

"Then who is to say I didn't in fact find this place and hide it from you, Heimdall?"

The dark-skinned male smirked—it was the closest he came to a laugh. Ever. "Impossible. I was with Odin's ancestor when he found this place."

Loki blinked in surprise at that. "Just...Just how old are you?" he inquired. Heimdall didn't have a chance to respond—and he probably wouldn't have anyway—before there was a solid knock on the door behind him.

Heimdall stepped to the side and opened the door, revealing Odin—as well as Thor.

"You asked for a place where you and you brother would not be bothered," Odin was saying, "and I have brought you to one such place."

"But did you have to have him strung up?" Thor asked as they walked into the room. The two men looked down at Loki in unison, and even their scowls looked similar. "What is he doing on the floor?"

"Your shackles are not meant to hold a Frost Giant," Loki said, gesturing distastefully at the metal bands around his wrists.

"We'll keep that in mind," Thor muttered as he looked his brother over. "Heimdall, you're excused."

Heimdall bowed to Thor, but made no move to leave. "Forgive me, but the Allfather invited me along. I will leave when he commands."

A small smile spread over Odin's lips, and he shook his head slowly. "You may leave," he said patiently.

"Good to know where my guard's loyalties lie," Thor said once Heimdall had left.

"Oh, come now," Odin tsked. "Heimdall is loyal to you, but he has been with me since I was a boy. We have an...understanding."

Thor nodded, but said nothing more on the matter. Instead, he breached the subject that would dictate how this encounter played out. "Father...would you mind leaving us?"

Odin raised a white eyebrow at that, and then shrugged. "I do not mind. Would you be able to find your way out again?"

The King paused, and then blinked. He sighed and shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. Send Heimdall for me at sun-high?"

"Of course," Odin chuckled. Then he turned his blue eye to Loki. He sighed and said, "I hope you have more success with him here." And then he excused himself, closing the door behind him and leaving the two brothers in tense, uncomfortable silence.

"Why have you brought me here?" Loki asked, looking away.

Thor glanced at Loki, and then looked away as well. "I was hoping we could have a bit more privacy here. I heard the guard speaking to you the other day. I don't want any distractions."

"Distractions? From what?" Loki scoffed. "I am having such a fantastic time sitting naked in my cell. Nothing could possibly interest me more than watching the rats scurry about."

Thor leveled a scathing glower on his brother, but the other didn't react at all. "There are no rats in my prison. However, I'm sure there are plenty here." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Brother...Father had tasked your punishment with Heimdall."

"Is that why he was here?" Loki asked. "To punish me?"

"No," Thor said, shaking his head and clasping his hands behind his back. "I requested that Father reconsider your warden during your imprisonment."

Loki raised one slender brow and sat up, crossing his legs before him. He was still cold, but Thor's words intrigued him more than his worry about frostbite—it wasn't like he had to actually worry about it, anyway. He could turn his flesh to literal ice if need be. "And just who is my warden now, Thor?"

The King raised his head proudly and stiffened his spine. "I am," he said in a very dignified manner.

"I'm sorry," Loki said as a grin spread over his lips. He hung his head for a moment and held his hand up to stop Thor when he tried to step forward, concern emanating from him. "It's just..." He covered his mouth with his hand to stifle the laughter that bubbled up from his throat, but it was impossible to stop it completely. While he was still giggling with mirth, he raised his head and met Thor's eyes, which were vibrant blue with indignation.

"What is so funny, brother?" the King demanded.

Loki shook his head as he chuckled a bit more. "It is rather amusing. You, the bleeding heart who saved two races just because you fell head over heels for a woman, stationed as _my_ warden? You must admit, it's rather laughable."

Thor's eyes narrowed and he moved his hands to his sides. "I don't believe you understand what it means for you to be in my care." He slowly walked toward the other side of the circular room, around the stream of water, and behind Loki. Once he was out of Loki's range of sight, he walked up behind his brother and crouched down to balance on the balls of his feet. "Allow me to demonstrate," he said.

The younger of the two gasped when he felt Thor's fingers knot themselves in his hair, and he let out a snarl, trying to pull away—it was of no use. Thor forced him onto his belly and pressed his cheek to the floor.

"Release me!" Loki snarled even as his golden-haired counterpart gripped his wrist and pulled his arm behind his back, angling his hand toward his opposite shoulder blade. The pressure on his shoulder from the hold made Loki writhe, trying to ease the pain.

"I could dislocate your shoulder like this," Thor said in a patient, and even gentle voice.

"Thor, let go of my arm. That hurts!"

Thor chuckled and shook his head. "What do you think punishment is? A game? No, my dearest brother. This is no game. You will remain down here until you succumb and give me what I want."

Loki winced as Thor adjusted his grip, and he snarled, "What do you want from me?"

The other was silent for a long moment, and then he leaned down, removing his hand from Loki's hair so he could place it on the ground beside his head. Then, he whispered in Loki's ear, "Your loyalty. You refuse my love, my forgiveness...so I will accept nothing less than you, kneeling before me and swearing fealty to me and the Kingdom of Asgard."

A growl bubbled in Loki's throat, but it turned into a yelp of pain, and then silence as Thor pressed on his arm. "You also will apologize to Father," Thor hissed, "and you will be sincere. Or so help me, I will..."

"You'll what, Thor?" Loki hissed. "Tell me just what you'll do!"

Thor closed his eyes and sighed, shaking his head. "I will do something I will regret." He released Loki's arm and stood, walking toward the door. "This can go two ways," he said over his shoulder, pausing at the door.

"And what ways would that be?" Loki asked, a groan edging his voice as he sat up, rubbing his sore shoulder.

"Either you cooperate, and behave, or I become violent and _force_ you to behave."

Loki snorted in a rather undignified manner and shook his head. The ice had melted from his skin at this point, and the pains of his body were becoming more noticeable. He grimaced and closed his eyes, trying to focus on anything but the pain. "As if you could hurt me," he scoffed. "You _love_ me too much. You think I'm just too precious to harm—"

He didn't even see Thor move, but suddenly, the other was crouched right in front of him, balancing on the balls of his feet with his hands resting on his knees, and his eyes blazing.

"It is because I love you," Thor said, "that I am doing this. I could have left you to Heimdall, and your suffering would have been for naught. This way, we can work toward something that won't end with you completely incapacitated and drooling on the floor."

Loki blinked and swallowed hard. Thor was serious? "Why don't you just kill me then?" he asked in a hoarse voice. "It would be easier for everyone, and you wouldn't be saddled with such a...burden."

Thor sighed and shook his head. "You don't understand, Loki. I want you to stop being such a fool. I want you to see that you don't have to be anyone other than who you are. You can be good, and the people of Asgard can love you again—if you just learn to behave."

"I know how to behave, Thor. I am not a child—"

"Then why continue acting like one!" Thor exclaimed. "Sending the Destroyer to attack the Midgardians was not an act of maturity. It was an act of childish pettiness that even a three-year old could have seen was destined to fail."

Loki gritted his teeth and turned his face away.

Taking his brother's silence as the end of the conversation, Thor stood and slipped his hand into his pocket, producing a small tin box. He tossed it to the other.

Frowning, Loki opened the tin box and sifted through its contents: a curved needle, wire-like threat, and a small bottle of mead. "I do not understand," he said, his eyebrows knitting together in his confusion. "What is this for?"

An odd emotion shone in Thor's blue eyes; it was like sadness and determination combined.

"You speak nothing but poisonous lies," he said. "I refuse to allow you to harm anyone else with your insolence."

It took a moment for him to understand, but when realization dawned on him, his face drained of color, and his mouth dropped open. "You...you want me to sew my mouth shut?" he asked, his voice reedy with shock and fear.

"Either you do it, or I do," Thor said gravely. He turned and stalked toward the door, lifting the single torch in the room from its sconce. "You have until I return to decide. At that time, depending on what you have chosen, my visit may be pleasant, or _very_ painful...for the both of us."

* * *

At some point while he was asleep, a mirror had been brought into Loki's prison along with a torch replaced in the sconce. It sat leaning against the wall on the floor opposite from the demigod, and when he awoke, he found himself staring at his reflection. He looked almost...ghostly. How long had he even been down there? Days? Weeks? Either way, it was too long.

He looked over at the tin he'd thrown at the opposite wall before he slept. If he didn't do it, then Thor would...and knowing his brother, he would probably make it as unpleasant as possible. So, Loki struggled to sit up, his body stiff with cold, and crawled toward the mirror. He picked up the tin with a hand that trembled slightly and opened it.

Sighing, he picked up the needle, which had thankfully already been threaded—if he'd tried to do it himself, he wouldn't have been able to. How much pain would this cause him? And what was the mead for? Dulling his senses? Sterilizing the wound? The latter would be the most practical use of the alcohol, but he didn't want practical...he wanted not to feel what he was about to do. So, he set the tin aside on the ground, uncorked the small bottle and drank the amber liquid greedily. It was the first liquid he'd had access to since he'd been moved here, and however long that had been, his thirst was a ravenous thing—much like his hunger.

He set the bottle aside and reclaimed the tin. His heart skipped a beat as he picked the needle up once more and looked at it. _Just get it over with_, he told himself. _It won't hurt that much. _

He couldn't have been more wrong.

The first thing that he noticed about trying to sew his mouth shut was that his skin was _tough_. He touched the needle to his lower lip about half an inch from the corner of his mouth, halfway between the actual lip and his chin and began pressing it into his skin. He winced and squeezed his eyes shut. The pain wasn't the worst he had experienced, but it was centralized on a single, small point. When the needle finally pushed through, he cried out in pain. The tip of the needle lodged itself in his gums due to the pressure he'd placed on it.

Before he strung the wire through the bleeding pinprick, he pulled the needle from his gums and sat there panting for a moment. "I'm going to kill Thor," he whispered. He took a few minutes to recover before he took up the needle again and pulled it through until he could tie a knot in the string, around his lip. _Nine more_..., he thought. It was a daunting task, but he knew it was either do it now and suffer little, or allow Thor at his face with a sharp object. He shuddered at the thought.

So, he steeled himself against the pain and continued. By the time he had finished, his chin and hands were streaked with blood, and he was in tears. He slumped to the floor on his side and curled into as tight a ball as he could.

* * *

Loki had no idea how much time had passed, as he had no way to gauge it, but some time later, the door opened, waking the god from his fitful slumber. He tried to open his mouth to ask who entered, but agony burned along his mouth, and he whimpered.

"You have done it?" a familiar, deep voice asked.

The god opened his eyes as a tear slid from the corner of one and looked up at Thor, who stood with a torch in his hand. For a moment, Loki thought he had seen horror, and maybe even disgust in Thor's blue eyes, but it vanished too quickly for him to be certain.

"Good," the golden-haired god said. "You are learning to obey—you might not prove to be such a pest after all."


End file.
